Cloud Provider Transparency: A View from Cloud Customers

A major feature of public cloud services is that data are processed remotely in unknown systems that the users do not own or operate. This context creates a number of challenges related to data privacy and security and may hinder the adoption of cloud technology. One of these challenges is how to maintain transparency of the processes and procedures while at the same time providing services that are secure and cost effective. This paper presents results from an empirical study in which the cloud customers identified a number of transparency requirements to the adoption of cloud providers. We have compared our results with previous studies, and have found that in general, customers are in synchrony with research criteria for cloud service provider transparency, but there are also some extra pieces of information that customers are looking for.